The COP31 Presidency, led by Turkey's Environment Minister Murat Kurum, has set ambitious targets such as clean energy access, grid infrastructure, and green industrialisation (See COP31TÜRKİYE webpage). Yet, as İklim Ağı (Climate Network based in Turkey) noted at a press conference in Ankara on 15 September 2026, Turkey's domestic actions contradict its international narrative. The Ministry, which holds the COP presidency, is actively appealing a court ruling that annulled the 688 MW expansion of the Afşin-Elbistan a coal plant. In addition, a new 1,050 MW unit has been proposed for the existing coal-fired plant in Çanakkale Karabiga. As Özlem Katısöz of CAN Europe stated, "The path to electrification does not pass through coal, but through a just transition away from coal." Cengiz Holding, a major Turkish conglomerate, has been seeking approval, for instance, to add a new 1,050 MW unit to its 1,320 MW imported coal-fired CENAL power plant in Çanakkale’s town of Karabiga. (Vardar, 2026). This initiative, described as a “capacity increase”, is planned to build another large coal-fired power station, extending pollution and dependence on imported coal for decades to come. Turkey is therefore deeply contradictory in championing a 35% electrification target while also expanding coal capacity. As Bengisu Özenç of SEFİA warns, "positioning renewable energy only to meet the new electricity demand that will arise will not lead us to decarbonisation."
The COP31 summit, therefore, must expand its platform for civil society and local community representatives to rigorously discuss these paradoxes. This is a great chance for COP31, and it should not miss it. In my commentary on COP30 in Belém, Brazil, last year, I emphasised that the last year's summit signalled the emergence of an interplural world order no longer based on a hierarchy of global actors. (Akçalı, 2025). COP 30 adopted the concept of "Mutirão", for instance, a Tupi-Guarani term for collective effort, to champion a vision of climate action driven by a coalition of actors, including indigenous councils, city networks, and youth coalitions. This form of substate insurgency should also offer COP31 an example. However, that requires a democratic political environment, making the location of COP meetings critical, too. The COP31 Presidency this year instead identifies the main constraints as inadequate grids, flexibility gaps, and limited access to finance. Its proposed solution is a "cooperation and risk-sharing architecture that makes grid, storage, and coal phase-out investments predictable for investors" (Demir, 2026). Although necessary, this framing reflects a technocratic, top-down bias and relies on the language of capital, returns, and high upfront investment costs.
This approach risks alienating people on the front lines around the world of the energy transition who are local communities directly affected by climate change and the renewable energy transition. The transition is not only about building solar or wind farms and/or battery parks, but it is also about state-society relations, power, capital, land, and livelihoods. The COP31 summit can genuinely succeed only if it centres the voices of communities. Our current British Academy-funded research on the Green Energy transition in the Mediterranean[2] shows that people are not opposed to renewable energy itself. They oppose a development model that excludes them from having a voice, taking part, and owning a stake. The slogan "Havama, suyuma, zeytinime dokunma" ("Don't touch my air, water, olive"), is not NIMBYism; it is a demand for ecological and social justice. A successful COP must also champion what our current research identifies as "energy communities" and "renewable energy cooperatives." This is the "third way" that bypasses both the state-led and corporate-led models. In Greece and Italy, the EU legally supports energy communities, allowing citizens to produce their own energy. In Turkey, despite bureaucratic challenges, energy cooperatives and communities have dormant potential in offering a more sustainable and just path to energy security and resilience. COP31 must allocate significant time and resources to formalising public participation.
Another critical lens through which to view COP31 is the issue of global inequality. The summit's focus on a 35% global electrification target is a positive step, but the means of achieving it are deeply problematic. As the transcript of a conversation with an energy expert from Turkey's Climate Policy Lab reveals, the "just transition" in the Global South looks very different than in the Global North. In Europe, the focus is on decarbonisation and reducing emissions. In Africa, the priority is "energy poverty, energy security, affordable energy." As one of our interviewees notes, "You tell this to a guy based somewhere in the Global South, he'll say, 'I don't care about the environment, I don't have electricity.'" The COP meetings, therefore, must avoid a neocolonial approach. The EU and other developed nations must not impose their regulatory standards on the Global South countries without providing the necessary financing and technology transfer. The current model, where European companies receive massive subsidies from the EU to develop expensive and unproven technologies like green hydrogen, and then expect developing countries to buy them, is a recipe for failure. As another interviewee notes, "There is a 1 trillion euro cake for hydrogen... but hydrogen is expensive. It will remain expensive for the next 20-30 years." This is neither a just nor an efficient use of resources. A just COP would also prioritise funding for off-grid solar and wind solutions.
Furthermore, the COP31 summit must be a platform to challenge the increasing dominance of large corporations in the climate space. The recent announcement that Cengiz Holding, a company known for destroying forests in Akbelen for coal mining, is the "Sustainable Transformation Partner" for COP31 is a slap in the face to climate justice. To be a just and sustainable COP, the summit must achieve several concrete things. First, it must establish a clear and binding pathway for a global coal phase-out, starting with the host country, Turkey. Second, it must significantly increase funding for community-led renewable energy projects. It must move beyond the "public-private partnership" model, which often serves as a subsidy for large corporations, and instead fund locally-owned and managed energy cooperatives. Third, it must ensure that the energy transition does not become a new form of neocolonialism. It must provide technology transfer and finance to the Global South without attaching strings that force them to adopt expensive and unproven technologies. Fourth, it must call out the corporate greenwashing that is so pervasive in the climate space. It must not allow companies with a track record of environmental destruction to sponsor the summit.
Finally, COP31 must offer hope and inspire people to believe that another world is possible. It must emphasise the extraordinary work of communities, activists, and social movements worldwide, while celebrating the successes of energy communities and cooperatives. The energy transition should not be about state- and corporation-led targets and roadmaps alone. Above all, it should be about all living things, including trees and plants, dignity, and the right of all to a clean and healthy environment. The COP31 summit in Antalya is therefore a crucial moment, a chance for the world to come together and design a new path. It must not be a vitrine for the powerful, but a platform for the people. Young people are responding to growing socio-economic, ecological, and political inequalities and injustices around the world, from France to Brazil, Argentina, Italy and India, calling for just, progressive change, as popular movements have for centuries. The US 2026 midterm elections are also a positive response, showing solidarity with people’s current demands worldwide. People around the globe are demanding action, not just words, and COP31 must not ignore that demand.
References
Acara, E., Şahin, Ü., & Franck, T. (2026). Unlocking Türkiye’s Climate Policy Tools: From Carbon Lock-in to Policy Gaps. Climate Policy Lab, The Fletcher School, Tufts University, and Istanbul Policy Center, Sabancı University.
Akçalı E. (2025). COP30: The global Mutirão in a fragmented climate orderç available at https://www.kcl.ac.uk/cop30-the-global-mutirao-in-a-fragmented-climate-order
Author interviews with Dr Faize Sarış, Dr Sohbet Karbuz and several locals in Çanakkale (Turkey), Crete (Greece) and Naples and its surroundings in Italy.
Climate Policy Lab. (2026, May 27). What’s Holding Back Türkiye’s Climate and Energy Transition?
COP31 Türkiye. (2026). 2026 United Nations Climate Change Conference, the 31st Conference of the Parties (COP31), available at https://cop31.tr/cop31-vision
Demir, O. (2026). Electrification and Energy Transition in the COP31 Process. SETA Analysis, Issue 488.
İklim Ağı/SEFİA. (2026). "İklim Ağı: Türkiye'nin COP31 Başkanlığı ile Yeni Kömür Yatırımları Çelişiyor" [Climate Network: Türkiye's COP31 Presidency Contradicts New Coal Investments], available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66K9Bq_-sUs.
Katısöz, Ö. (2026). Statement at İklim Ağı press conference, Ankara, 15 September 2026. In İklim Ağı/SEFİA, available at at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66K9Bq_-sUs.
Norton A. (2026). "Australia and Turkey criticised for hosting UN climate conference while embracing coal", 4 Oct. The Guardian, available at https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/oct/05/australia-and-turkey-criticised-for-hosting-un-climate-conference-while-embracing-coal
350.org (2026, November 4). A Global People Led Movement: Türkiye’s National Energy Plan 2040 falls short without commitment to phase out fossil fuels, available at https://350.org/.
Vardar N. (2026). "Beyond Fossil Fuels. COP31 Starts at Home: Çanakkale Deserves to Be Known for Its Tomatoes, Not Another Coal Power Plant", available at https://beyondfossilfuels.org/2026/08/20/cop31-starts-at-home/
[1] The Guardian article reports that the two COP31 hosts are "facing criticism for being partners in a coal supply chain while remaining near silent on the need for a global deal to rapidly get off fossil fuels" . It cites 350.org- A People Led Global Movement's findings that Turkey is Europe's biggest coal-power generator and has signalled it could expand coal and gas capacity by about 30% by 2035, while Australia remains one of the world's largest coal and LNG exporters . The article also notes that none of the official COP31 presidential letters to countries mentioned fossil fuels, reinforcing the "climate leader" rhetoric versus fossil fuel reality gap .
[2] Green Energies on the Ground Accross the Mediterranean https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/green-energies-on-the-ground-across-the-mediterranean